An English lesson rarely starts at zero. It starts below it. The children have just run in from the field, or they have arrived half asleep after an hour of sitting still. Open the book and teach straight away and you are talking to a wall. A good warm up isn't a bonus extra. It's the switch that turns the brain on and makes the other forty five minutes count.
How to Choose: Flip the Room's Energy
There is only one rule. Whatever state they arrive in, open with the opposite. If they come in soaked with sweat from running, give them a still warm up: eyes closed while you say a word, fingers held up for the number of syllables. If they come in drowsy from maths, give them a moving one: Stand up if you have a cat! Read the room's energy before you pick the activity and you will not lose the class in its first minute.
A Warm Up Bank, Sorted by Energy
- To wake them up, when the class is too flat: a song with actions, a fast round of Simon Says, counting round the room against the clock.
- To settle them, when the class is too wired: draw a word one line at a time and let them guess, whisper a word for them to write down, show a picture for thirty seconds then cover it and ask what they saw.
- Works either way: a timed three minute run back through last lesson's worksheet. It warms up the class and the earlier content at the same time.
The Rule That Stops a Warm Up Eating the Lesson
Set a real five minute timer and stop when it goes, even if the game is going brilliantly. That small pang of wanting more is the fuel for next lesson. Let a warm up stretch to fifteen minutes and you will find the main content unfinished, and all the class remembers of that lesson is that they played a game.